The Path to The Handmaid's Tale

While Planned Parenthood is sounding the alarm about an imminent frontal assault on Roe v. Wade from the Bush Administration, today we see instead how it’s going to play out — the end of choice via small and sly nibbles. Flexing post-election muscle, the Senate Republican leadership has just inserted into a must-pass $388 billion omnibus spending bill, an anti-abortion provision that could have broad reach…allowing hospitals and other healthcare providers to duck a responsibility to provide abortion services across the country. This won’t stop people with money from getting abortions; this will only affect those women least able to expand their families.

If you think abortion rights are someone else’s concern; think again. Do you have sexual relations? Do you believe the decision on whether or not to procreate rests with you and your partner? Do you think that the U.S. Attorney General should have final control of your body, your fertility? This is how it is about to be. These are small steps that lead straight down the path to The Handmaid’s Tale.

You have grown up in a society where women’s physical autonomy has been a given. I did not. I am only a couple decades older than you. I remember the terror of a missed period. The shame of a girlfriend who was banished from high school. A college couple’s frantic gathering of money for a drive into the night. You don’t want to have to live like that. Believe me.

Eight female Senators objected to the provision, including Republican Olympia Snowe of Maine and Democrat Barbara Boxer of California who has vowed to stand in the way of the bill. Support California Senator Barbara Boxer and maintain vigilance for the other indirect tactics that will surely follow.

“Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the Weldon amendment, an extraordinary sneak attack on women’s rights and a disgraceful display of ideology over health.“ “This language is a radical change in policy that the House has not debated on the floor, and the Senate has never considered, debated, or voted on. Republicans simply slipped it into the appropriations bill when they thought no one was looking. “If a hospital, health insurance company, or doctor opposes Roe v. Wade, they could simply ignore it. Ignore it. This is the law of the land. A Constitutional right could simply be ignored.”